Last Girl Standing
by Jebe
Summary: A short fic offering a potential ending for the Anime series that ties up some of the more major loose ends, and what Kaede was up to in particular.


Last Girl Standing

Disclaimer: This is based on the anime Kampfer adaptation, and may or may not be Kryptonite to those favoring Kaede Sakura hatefests. All characters are based on fictional characters, any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.

Kaede dismissed the quartet of girls she had chosen to work as her agents. With their "defeat" they had served their purpose and could return to their normal lives, none the wiser of what had occurred or even that she'd ever talked with them. For now it was simply a matter of waiting, waiting for the inevitable now that she had insured the potential obstacles to the inevitable fight amongst themselves had been removed. The focus on an external threat to their ambitions, namely her, having become a focus she had needed to neutralize before it got out of hand. Hence she had played the incompetent and defeated villain.

This uncharacteristic docile behavior was inspiring the leaders of the Reds and Blues to want to intervene. It had been all she could do to keep them from killing them all. Particularly without insuring she would be killed as well for appearing to favor her beloved Natsuru too much. That was why she had to setup at least the pretense of exterminating the troublemakers, and setting things up so it wasn't quite blatantly obvious she was trying to insure her chosen was the ultimate victor, and thus would be able to survive.

Poor Shizuku. For all her airs at intelligence and figuring out the Moderators plans, she had failed to show any recognition of the trap she had just walked into or the slightest appreciation of the larger situation. The best plans for deception were those that played to one's biases and encouraged them to do things they would be inclined to do normally. In this case that fit handily both to accomplish what the Moderators had chosen her for, and what she personally had hoped for over all these years. Although things would have went so much better if Shizuku had simply accepted her gift.

Soon this set she had overseen since Middle School would end and she the Princess of the Entrails Kingdom could finally be together with her Prince from the Hormone Kingdom, with her Hero of the Entrails Kingdom accompanying.

***

Natsuru stared at the Moon, because he'd never learned to read constellations and it was the only safe place to rest his eyes. If he lowered them anymore or even started to act rational the three girls currently latched onto him and bickering among themselves would turn their aggression towards him. Or at least that was the plan, until a quick pair of gunshots rang out.

Natsuru quickly glanced over in time to see both Shizuku and Mikoto fall with gore spraying from their heads, before he was rather roughly manhandled into facing Kampfer Akane who casually pushed her pistol into the side of his head.

"Don't you want to kiss me?" She demanded huskily.

Natsuru had a flashback to Akane's similarly violent outburst when he had indicated she was his type, and the accompanying destruction of his room.

"Then let's die together, Natsuru." Akane declared taking his hesitation as a refusal. Natsuru considered trying to talk her down, but under the circumstances rated his chances of survival as infinitely better if he ran like hell, and tried to with her after she had, had some time to calm down.

Natsuru managed to shove Akane's arm up quickly enough that the gun went off above her head as she transformed. The degree to which it was close however was disturbing. Recognizing she couldn't simply stay still Natsuru started running. A quick glance back caused her to take a double take, as she realized Shizuku and Mikoto's bodies were gone. All too accurate gunfire landing around her convinced her now was the time to move, instead of gawk.

***

Things hadn't gone according to her expectations, at all. Mashima-san killing Shizuku was something she didn't really believe was possible. She'd known that by Shizuku refusing her gift she had added more chaos to the equation that could have led to something like this, but she never seriously believed this would happen. And because of that Natsuru, instead of being safely protected by their mutual love for her, was now a target of that berserk redhead. She should have foreseen this, done something that could have prevented it.

Now all she could do was hope she could get there before something bad happened, and Natsuru was taken from her forever. While the powers the Moderators had deigned to bestow on her were significant including being aware of where all her assigned Kampfers were, their situation, and able to issue commands to a limited extent none of it helped in this situation except to give her an idea where Natsuru was as Akane ran after her firing away.

***

Natsuru made for the park located near the school, cutting along a different vector through the plants after she had enough cover to foul Akane's attempt to reacquire her. Natsuru had no illusions about being actually able to hide, instead of delaying Akane. Hopefully it would be enough.

Noting a motorcycle and a guard rail over a road running through the park, Natsuru quickly checked to make sure Akane wasn't drawing a bead on her before doing a few stretches and sprinting towards the motorcycle, just as Akane opened fire. Her life sucked. Thanking God for small mercies as Akane's shots hit the handlebars and fuel tank, but not in a way that made it blow up or something, Natsuru used it as a base to flip over the guard rail. Natsuru felt rather then saw a near miss tear through her skirt.

Twisting in midair so she could at least see what the situation was where she was landing, Natsuru blessed her luck as she just managed to land on a compact car. She might even be able to get away at this rate. It wasn't to be as Akane jumped the fence and started firing wildly at her. There was no way she could stay perched on the car roof under the circumstances, it basically made her a stationary target and there was simply nothing she could do to counter Akane until the car opened the range enough.

So she had to jump off and hope that she could lose Akane in the cover of the forest, but that wasn't to be either as Akane eactually managed to get ahead of her and lining up for a shot fired. Only the happenstance of the Kampfer Bracelet happening to be in the right place at the right time to deflect the round saved her. Ashe was sent sailing by her now poorly directed, built up momentum from power jumping.

Natsuru managed to recover quickly after her trajectory intercepted a tree, saving her life as a bullet buried itself in the tree where she had been. That could have been the end if Akane hadn't made the mistake of pulling back instead of pursuing as Natsuru was able to duck into the nearby shadows forcing Akane to have to catch up and close the distance.

***

Natsuru was starting to feel exhausted from the constant dodging and other high exertion activities, but kept running trying for the tight pack urban areas in the hope of potentially losing her pursuer. Ducking into a building garage she quickly made her way up the steps, bursting out the door at the top only to find that there were no buildings close enough for her to jump to under the circumstances. Akane was relentless, and hot on her heels.

Standing so close to the edge and in the condition she was in, she misjudged her reaction and fell backwards off the building as Akane fired. The weight on her chest giving just enough extra incentive to flip her so she she could watch her approaching doom. Despite herself, Natsuru screamed.

***

Kaede just barely managed to make it in time to grab Natsuru as she fell in one arm, and shooting the upstart bitch that had threatened her beloved and was gleefully watching her plummet to her death with the pistol in her other hand. Kaede didn't so much land gracefully as she collapsed, out of breath after they crashed through the glass of one of the windows of the building her beloved had fallen from. For several moments she just tried to get her breathing under control. She was comforted when she felt a hand gently rubbing her back.

"Sakura?" Her beloved asked in a concerned voice that made her almost wish she could do this everyday. Almost. Running at the limits of her enhanced speed across town, and just barely managing to save her was more then she was willing to pay. A little less dire a threat to Natsuru, and not so much.

Kaede looked down and saw the various tears in her uniform sleeves. The power she had been granted by her Messenger served to protect what was underneath thankfully. Finally pulling herself together Kaede didn't so much hug as glomp onto her beloved Natsuru's ample chest. A ample chest that just happened to be at the height where she could nuzzle into her cleavage or casually lay her head on top of Natsuru's breasts without being too obvious about it. That and her noble and shy personality were among her best features.

"Natsuru, I'm glad I could, at least, save you." She could feel the tears coming. Tears of sorrow over the loss of her longtime friend. Tears of joy at managing to save Natsuru. Tears of emotional release after almost losing her beloved Natsuru.

Author's Notes:

This is just a short along the lines of another potential project. I probably won't continue this in particular, as all main storyline conflict has been resolved one way or another with Natsuru winning the set and the only loose thread is Kaede and Natsuru's relationship.

For those who read my other works *crickets chirp.* Okay if theoretically people did read Barker's Journey, I am continuing to work on it in addition to some slightly AU Guyver fic series. I should be able to continue things soon as a lot of the current work is refining the overall setup and both hammering out the details of and writing chapters in the second arc and later.


End file.
